"Throw it away," urged Jack.
"N-n-n-not for worlds," was the reply. "I was looking for another rare bit of quartz when I fell in here."
"I"ll run to the car," said Jack, who had made out that the well was not very deep. "Fortunately, we"ve got a rope and tackle in there. Hold on, professor, we"ll soon have you out."
He hurriedly explained the situation to the others and ran at top speed to the car, in which the boys--like most careful motorists, who never know when such a piece of apparatus may come in useful for hauling a car out of mud or sand, for instance, or for towing an unlucky autoist home--had a block and tackle stowed.
He was soon back, and the rope was lowered to the professor, who made it fast under his arms. Then, aided by the husky muscles of the farm hands, they soon drew him to the surface. But his weight was materially added to by the stones, and it was no light task to rescue him, dripping and shivering, from the dark, cold shaft.
He explained that soon after they had gone some men came up and drove the bull away. But they had seen the gap in the stone wall first.
"They were positively violent," declared the professor, "and said that they"d have the man who did it arrested if they could find him. Under the circ.u.mstances, I deemed it prudent to stay up in the tree, where they could not see me. They drove the bull off into another pasture. As soon as the coast was clear I climbed down, but I happened to see a rare bit of quartz sparkling in the sun on the edge of the well-curb. Imprudently I stood on the planking and fell in."
"Gracious, it"s a lucky thing you weren"t drowned, with all that weight round your neck," declared Jack.
"It was fortunate," said the scientist mildly, as if such a thing as drowning was an everyday occurrence. "As a matter of fact, if I hadn"t succeeded in grasping a projecting stone and held on, I might have gone down. It was an--er--a most discomforting experience."
"Well, of all things," exclaimed the red-faced man, "to go trapesing round the country collecting rocks!"
"Not rocks, sir--geological specimens," rejoined the professor with immense dignity, "and--great Huxley! Under your foot, sir! Under your foot!"
"What is it, a snake?" yelled the farmer, jumping backward as the scientist dashed at him with a wild expression.
"No, sir, but a remarkably fine specimen of what appears to be a granolithic substance," exclaimed the professor, and he began energetically chipping at a rock upon which the farmer had been standing.
"Crazy as a loon," declared the farmer, winking at his men. "Gets nearly drowned in a well and then begins chopping at a rock as soon as he gets out."
"Oh, this has been a lucky day for me," said the professor with huge satisfaction, as he placed his latest acquisition in the satchel. "As fine a specimen, boys, as ever I encountered," he declared, turning to the boys.
"Gracious," exclaimed Tom and d.i.c.k in low tones, "does he call getting chased by a bull and then tumbling down a well a satisfactory day?"
"I should call it a rocky time," grinned d.i.c.k.
But at this moment further conversation was cut short by the sudden arrival of a gray-haired, short little old man with a tuft of gray whiskers on his chin.
"Josh Crabtree!" exclaimed the red-faced farmer.
"Wow! now the music starts," declared d.i.c.k.
Josh Crabtree, his face ablaze, and his small, malignant eyes sparkling angrily, emitted a roar like that of his Holstein that had caused the professor so much tribulation.
"Say, be you the pesky varmints that tore down my fence and scared my bull out"n two years" growth?" he bellowed.
"I removed some stones from your fence, sir," said the professor, "but it was in the interests of science. You may not have been aware of it, but embedded in your enclosing structure was a fine specimen of green granite."
"Great hopping water-melyuns!" roared Old Crabtree, "and you tore down my fence to git at a pesky bit of rock?"
"Rock to you, sir," responded the scientist calmly, "like the man in the poem a "primrose by the river"s brim, a yellow primrose is to you, and it is nothing more.""
"Dad rot yer yaller primroses," yelled Old Crabtree, dancing about in his rage. "You make good for tearing down my fence, d"ye hear me?"
"I shall take great pleasure in forwarding you a check for any damage I may have done," said the professor.
"I want ther money now," said the farmer truculently.
"I regret that I have left my wallet at home," said the professor. Then he brightened suddenly. "I can leave my bag of specimens with you as security," he said, "if you will promise to be careful with them."
He unslung his bag and tendered it to the angry farmer who received it with a look of amazement that the next moment turned to wrath when he saw its contents.
"By hickory, what kind of a game is this?" he demanded. "Nothing but a lot of old rocks. By heck, thar"s enough here to build a new fence!"
He flung the bag down indignantly just as the professor darted forward with one of his odd, swift movements. He shoved Old Crabtree back without ceremony and bending swiftly to the spot where the angry farmer had been standing he picked up and pocketed a small rock.
"Wa"al land o" Goshen," gasped out the farmer, bewildered. "What in ther name of time is this?"
"A splendid specimen of gneiss," explained the professor triumphantly, "and now, Mr.--er--you were saying?"
"That I wants ter be paid fer ther damage ter my fence."
"How much do you want?" asked Jack, coming to the rescue.
"Reckon a dollar"ll be about right."
"If you will let me lend it to you till we reach your home, I"ll be very glad to pay him," said Jack aside to the professor.
"But, my dear young friend, there is no necessity. He has ample security till I can send him a check. Why, that bag of specimens is worth fifty dollars at least."
"Them old rocks," sniffed the farmer, who had overheard this last remark, "I wouldn"t give yer ten cents fer a cartload uv "em. They"re too small fer fences an" too big to throw at cows."
"You"d better let me pay him," said Jack, and the professor finally consented to this arrangement.
This done, they started back on the run to the professor"s home, which was about three miles off. On the way they dropped the red-faced farmer and his hands, who clearly regarded the professor as some sort of an amiable lunatic. But that worthy man, supremely happy despite his wet clothes, was quite contented, and from time to time dipped into his satchel, like a bookworm into a favorite volume, and drew out a particularly valued specimen and admired it.
They soon reached his home, a pretty cottage on the outskirts of Creston, a small town with elm-shaded streets. The professor invited the boys to accompany him into the house. They were met in the pa.s.sage by a shrill-voiced woman who looked like the professor in petticoats.
"My sister, Miss Melissa," said the professor. "My dear, these are----"
But he got no further in his introduction. Miss Melissa"s hands went up in the air and her voice rose in a shrill shriek as she saw her brother"s condition.
"Lan"s sakes, Jerushah, where have you been?" she exclaimed.
"My dear, I must apologize for my condition," said the professor mildly. "You see I----"
"You"re dripping a puddle on my carpets. You"re wringing wet through!" shrilled Miss Melissa.
"Yes, you see, my dear, I"ve been down a well," explained the man of science calmly.
"Do tell! Down a well, Jerushah? At your time of life!"
"You see I was after specimens, my dear," went on the professor.
"Specimens!" exclaimed Miss Melissa. "The whole house is full of old rocks now, Jerushah, an" you have ter go down a well to get more."
"These are very valuable, my dear," said the professor, floundering helplessly.
"Oh, don"t tell me. A pa.s.sel of old rocks. I"m going to get you a hot mustard footbath and some herb tea right away," and without another word, except something about "death of cold, pa.s.sel of boys," the good lady flounced off.
"She"s like that sometimes, but she means well, Melissa does," explained the professor, with a rather sheepish look as he stood in the midst of a puddle that was rapidly converting him into an isolated island in the midst of Miss Melissa"s immaculate hall carpet. Suddenly, with one of his impulsive movements, he darted off into a room opening off the hall and came back with a dollar bill he had unearthed from a desk. He handed it to Jack, and then, raising his finger to his lips, he said: "Don"t let Melissa see it. She"s the best of women, is Melissa, but peculiar about some things--er--very peculiar."
"Je-ru-shah!" came Miss Melissa"s voice.
"Yes, my dear, coming," said the professor, and shouldering his bag of specimens he shook hands with the boys and hastened off to answer his sister"s dictatorial call.
"I guess we"d better be going," said Jack, with a smile that he could not repress.
The others agreed, and they were soon speeding back to High Towers, as the estate of Jack"s father, also a noted inventor, was called, with plenty to talk about as a result of the events of the day.
CHAPTER V.
CHESTER CHADWICK--INVENTOR.
As readers of the preceding volumes of this series, know, Jack Chadwick and Tom Jesson, his cousin, had won the t.i.tles of Boy Inventors through their ingenuity and mechanical genius. Jack"s father, Chester Chadwick, was an inventor of note, and unlike the majority of inventors, he had turned his devices to such good account that he had acc.u.mulated a substantial fortune and was able to maintain a fine estate, already referred to as High Towers where, with splendidly equipped workshops and a miniature lake, he could experiment and work out his ideas.
In the first book of this series it was related how Tom Jesson, Jack"s cousin, came to make his home at High Towers. Tom"s father, an explorer of international fame, had departed on an expedition to Yucatan and had not been heard from since that time. This volume, which was called the Boy Inventors" Wireless Triumph, told of the boys" exploits in the radio-telegraphic field and the uses to which they were able to turn them. In a flying machine, the invention of Mr. Chadwick, they discovered Tom"s father, under remarkable circ.u.mstances, a prisoner of a tribe of savages, and also found a fortune in precious stones.
In the succeeding story of their adventures, the boys helped an inventor in trouble. The Boy Inventors" Vanishing Gun, as this volume was ent.i.tled, set forth in a graphic way the triumph of the boys over the machinations of a gang of rascals intent on stealing the plans of the wonderful implement of warfare which they had helped bring to successful completion.
We next encountered the lads in the Boy Inventors" Diving Torpedo Boat. Here they were placed in a new environment on the surface and in the depths of the ocean. The way in which the wonderful diving craft aided Uncle Sam in a crisis with enemies of the United States was told, and their ingenuity and bravery played no small part in the affair.
The Boy Inventors" Flying Ship was devoted to a detailed narrative of the boys" long and unexpected cruise to the unexplored regions of the Upper Amazon. The boys were shipwrecked and cast away without an apparent hope of rescue on a yacht belonging to a German scientist, the crew of which had mutinied. The boys" capture by a strange tribe and subsequent escape in their Flying Ship formed thrilling portions of this story, while d.i.c.k Donovan"s researches in natural history provided the boys with a lot of fun.
The volume immediately preceding this showed the boys coming to the rescue of a poor lad, a waif and orphan, who yet had a fortune in the plans and specifications of a new type of craft invented by his dead father who had lacked the capital to develop it. Enemies strove desperately to secure the papers, and even went to the length of forging a will for the purpose, but partly through the agency of an odd German lad, Heiney Pumpernickel Dill, their schemes were frustrated and the invention was developed and set upon a working basis. This book was called the Boy Inventors" Hydroaeroplane, and dealt with some astonishing adventures and perils all of which the boys encountered with plucky spirits and resourceful minds.
For some weeks preceding the opening of the present book relating of the Boy Inventors, Mr. Chadwick had been closeted in his own private laboratory. The boys had seen him only at rare intervals, and then he had appeared abstracted and preoccupied. This, the boys knew, was a sure sign that he was at work on a new idea.
Sometimes the lights burned in his laboratory far into the night and in the morning he would appear at breakfast pale and silent. The boys had indulged in much speculation as to what the new invention could be, but had arrived at no satisfactory conclusion when, two days after their experience with the eccentric professor, Mr. Chadwick summoned them to his private workshop. The boys, who had been at work on the Wondership, the flying automobile with which they had met such surprising adventures in Brazil, obeyed the summons with alacrity. It was delivered to them by Jupe, the negro factotum of the place.
"Ma.s.sa Chadwick send me on de bustelbolorium," explained Jupe, who had a vocabulary that was all his own, "for yo" alls to come right away by his laburnumtory."
"All right, Jupe, we"ll be right over," said Jack, "just as soon as we"ve got some of this grease off our hands."
The boys" workshop was equipped with a washbasin and they soon made themselves presentable. Then they hurried to Mr. Chadwick"s workshop. They found him standing before a roughly-built table on which were ranged some odd-looking bits of apparatus.
There was a gasoline motor in one corner, geared to a generator--or what appeared to be one--from which feed wires led to a square metal box on the table. Attached to this metal box was a sort of horn-shaped mouthpiece something like the transmitter of a telephone. Hanging from its side was what looked like an enlarged telephone receiver. Jack regarded his father questioningly.
"You sent for us, dad?"
"Yes, Jack," was the reply. "I"m in a quandary. Have you any idea what this apparatus is?"
Both boys shook their heads.
"Looks like some kind of a telephone," ventured Tom.
"It is a telephone," replied Mr. Chadwick.
"But--but--where are the wires?" asked Jack, glancing about him, "or haven"t you connected it up yet?"
"It"s connected up as much as it will ever be," said Mr. Chadwick with a smile. "Can"t you guess what it is?"
"I"ve got it," cried Jack suddenly. "It"s a wireless telephone."
"That"s right," admitted his father, and, in response to a flood of questions from the boys, he told them how he had been working day and night to bring the device to perfection.
"Now," he said, as he concluded, "I want you boys to go down to that shed that was put up last week at the northwest corner of the orchard."
"The one that was put up to store gasoline?" asked Tom.
"I said it was for that purpose in order to avoid questions till I had my work completed," said Mr. Chadwick with a smile. "Here is the key to it. Inside you will find an apparatus similar to this one. Start the dynamo and then stand in front of the transmitter and place the receiver to your ear. If you don"t hear anything at once use the inductor to tune your aerial earth circuit to the transmitted current from my end just exactly as you would tune up a wireless telegraph instrument to catch certain wave lengths from another instrument"
"Then the principle of the radio telephone is the same as that of the wireless telephone?" asked Tom.
"I"ll explain that to you later in as plain language as I can," said the inventor, "but now I am anxious to see how this instrument will transmit sound."
The boys were excited. Anything novel in the way of science attracted their bright, active minds as an electromagnet attracts steel. The idea of a wireless telephone, of the possibility of transmitting actual speech through s.p.a.ce, just as the dots and dashes of the wireless telegraph are sped through the ether, quickened their inventive faculties to the highest pitch. Both felt a glow of pride that they had been selected, even before their father"s scientific friends, to make the first test of this wonderful new invention.
They hurried across the broad lawn that intervened between the workshops and the orchard where the newly erected shed stood, and which, it had been given out, was to serve for the storage of gasoline. Unlocking the door, they found inside an apparatus resembling in almost every detail the one in Mr. Chadwick"s workshop.
Jack"s hands fairly trembled as he started up the motor and the generator began to buzz. With shining eyes and throbbing pulses he placed the receiver to his ear as his father had directed. But the next moment a flood of disappointment swept through him.
"Well?" demanded Tom, himself a tiptoe with expectation.
"Nothing doing," replied Jack, shaking his head. "I guess the thing isn"t at a practical stage yet."
"Wait a minute, give it a chance," urged Tom. "By the way, how about that tuning device, have you tried that yet?"
"No, good gracious, my head must be turning into solid ivory from the neck up. I guess that"s just what the trouble is."
Jack began carefully sliding a small block connected to the instruments up and down the coiled wire which formed the tuning apparatus, and brought the sending and receiving ends into harmony just as if they had been two musical instruments. When the right electric "chord" was struck he should be able to hear, just as in wireless he would be able to catch the message of an instrument whose wave lengths were attuned to his.
Suddenly Tom saw his chum and cousin give a start and then a shout. Over the s.p.a.ce between the workshop and the small shed a human voice had been borne on electric waves. Sharp and clear as though he had been listening to a "wire" "phone, Jack caught and recognized his father"s voice: "Hul-lo!"